UAH bid for National Solar Observatory is worldwide news

The McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope at the National Solar Observatory's campus in Arizona is the largest unobstructed-aperture optical telescope in the world. (National Solar Observatory photo)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The city known for helping send men to the moon may soon add the sun to its intellectual galaxy.

The University of Alabama in Huntsville announced Thursday that the city is one of two finalists for the new site of the National Solar Observatory.

Working closely with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in the bid to bring the NSO to Huntsville, UAH survived the elimination of five other sites and is now competing against the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Just how important is Huntsville's bid to become the new site of the NSO?

"The first meeting I had when I learned I was going to be interim president was with Gary Zank to discuss it," said Malcolm Portera, chancellor of the University of Alabama system and interim president at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Zank, an eminent scholar and chair of the UAH physics department, and Elizabeth Newton, director of Policy Research Programs at UAH, spearheaded the overall proposal effort.

"We're doing everything and more that we need to do to be able to attract it here," Portera said Wednesday in an interview with The Times.

The NSO currently has operations in Sunspot, N.M.; Tucson, Ariz.; and Pukalani, Hawaii. The NSO made a visit to Huntsville in February.

According to a UAH news release, the NSO is the nation's premier ground-based scientific research program to study solar physics and space weather and is operated under the auspices of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy on behalf of the National Science Foundation.

In short, Portera said, landing the solar observatory would mean "tremendous international and national exposure."

Then Portera provided an anecdote to prove it. He was in India last month, attending a conference at the Brabha Atomic Energy Commission. During a presentation on astrophysics, a conference official turned to Portera and said, "I understand you are competing for the national (solar) laboratory at one of your universities."

Portera then laughed about the distance between India and Huntsville.

"That's a few miles from here, by the way," Portera said.

UAH and Marshall are at the forefront of the project, but it has backing throughout the city and state. Other members of "Team Huntsville" include the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Sci-Quest, Alabama A&M University, Oakwood University and other regional universities, along with companies and government laboratories.

Newton also singled out the support of Gov. Robert Bentley, Mayor Tommy Battle, the chamber of commerce, the airport authority, Redstone Arsenal and Cummings Research Park as aiding in the project.